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Title: Hilldiggers
Series: Polity #10
Author: Neal Asher
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 564
Format: Digital Edition
Series: Polity #10
Author: Neal Asher
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages: 564
Format: Digital Edition
Synopsis:
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Back before the
AI's took over the Polity in the Quiet War, a group of humans had
left to follow their own dreams. Unfortunately, there was a violent
split in the group and one group went to one world and the other
group to the other world. Both performed lots and lots of
gene-splicing and mucking about to stay alive on their respective
planets. Once their civilizations reached a certain point they became
aware of the other planet and war ensued. The war ended when one side
used gravity weapons, the eponymous Hilldiggers, to totally wipe out
the underground cities of the other.
The winning side
had gotten a hold of an “Object” and learned a lot from it. They
held this Object in various cylanders on a space station. A woman
conceives at the moment that the object tries to get loose and 9
months later gives birth to quadruplets. These quads are the
brightest humans on the planet and seem driven to succeed at whatever
task they want.
The Polity has been
monitoring this system for quite some time and is now sending in a
Consul to see if the system would like to join the Polity. They send
in an Old Captain, a man of Spatterjay who is more virus than man.
But this man has a countervirus working in him as an experiment.
When one of the
Quads leads a military coup, the Consul must navigate between 2
worlds, the Polity and the mysterious Object, which seems to have its
own agenda.
In the end, the
coup, which was instigated by the Object, fails but ends up freeing
the Object, which continues its travels and recon. The 2 worlds make
peace once it is realized the victorious world started the war for
profit and both worlds decide to slowly look into entering the
Polity.
My
Thoughts:
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Even though I read this back in 2011, I didn't remember anything
besides the Object so this was like reading it ♪for the very♪
first♪ time♪. I have to say, I enjoyed this a lot and reading my
review, I enjoyed it a lot more than last time.
I know last time I was convinced that the Object was the Dragon that
we are introduced to in the Agent
Cormac series. This time around, I'm not really sure and
actually rather doubt it. It just didn't fit the description. It
would be nice to know for sure one way or the other though.
There was a lot of fighting in this book and having an Old Captain,
with a twist, made for a good character to represent the Polity. We
also get viewpoints from each of the quadruplets and a Polity Drone.
While Asher seems quite able to handle so many viewpoints and to tell
one cohesive whole of a story through them, trying to summarize it
all is a real pain in the butt.
I am trying to think WHY I enjoyed this so much more than last time.
Part of it is that I've read enough of his newer books to realize
that he's not going to be writing a Spatterjay trilogy ever again and
so I don't expect his books to be that. I think that it didn't help
that I simply gorged on these back in '11. I read 5 of his books
within a month and that can really detract.
I was able to sit back, take in the various viewpoints and just let
the story roll on. I have found that I've been doing that a lot more
recently and it helps me to enjoy the book.Instead of trying to guess
or predict, I just let the author guide me along. I don't try to
fight the current of the book. I am The Tai-Chi Master of Book
Reading, hahahahaa!
Another greatly enjoyable book by Asher in the Polity universe.
★★★★☆
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